Tulsa Speaks: A City Council, Reparations, and Race in America Today
In 2021, the international media descended upon Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the centennial commemoration of the May 31–June 1, 1921, massacre in which a white mob killed more than three hundred African American residents, burned homes and businesses, and decimated a thriving town once referred to as “Black Wall Street.”
Tulsa Speaks is about the ongoing work of the Tulsa City Council, both before the Centennial and afterward, when the cameras were no longer trained on the city. It dives deep into the interpersonal dynamics among the nine councilors, exploring the continuing fight for reparations and racial justice and the long-running efforts of councilor, Vanessa Hall-Harper of District 1, to bring repair to Greenwood. Tulsa, like many municipal bodies across the country, serves as a hopeful sign of what we might become, as Americans, and as a microcosm of race relations in America today.
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“Zook recalls a childhood haunted by her missing father, and complicated by his return. A brave, heart-stirring memoir.”
PEOPLE Magazine
“A powerful memoir about a woman’s odyssey for connection, self-identity, and love.”
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“Kristal Brent Zook’s memoir is a wrenching, riveting and luminous coming-of-age story about what it means to grow up biracial… this memoir reveals what it means to be found.”
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Publisher, The Nation
“Kristal is blessed with genuine intellectual curiosity, along with the instincts and drive of an old-fashioned reporter. Both her and her work are truly special.”
Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post
Chosen as a favorite book by Vanity Fair, BET, PEOPLE, Ms., and The Root.
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Meet Kristal Brent Zook
Hi! I’m an award-winning journalist and the author of six books including The Girl in the Yellow Poncho, which was chosen as a favorite book by Vanity Fair, BET, PEOPLE, Ms., and The Root, and received praise in The New York Times Book Review and Kirkus. A former contributor to the Washington Post and ESSENCE, my writing on race, women, culture, and social justice has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, LIFE and The Guardian among other outlets. Find me @kbzook
